CHAPTER 5: MEMORY

Question 1

atkinson-shiffrin multi-store model of memory

Answer 1

• incoming sensory info is perceived by the sensory memory from the 5 senses
• acts like a holding bin until we decide what information we want to pay attention to
• information moves to short term memory
  
  • most information that is not attended to is forgotten
• information in the short term memory is mentally manipulated
• encoding towards long term memory occurs
  
  • converts the information from our short term memory into a form that our brains can store
• storage
  
  • retains the information in our long-term memory for future use
• from the long term memory, retrieval can take place
  
  • can access previously stored information from the LTM

Question 2

sensory memory

Answer 2

• entry point for all new information from the external environment
• stores vast quantities for several hundred milliseconds
• information attended to is transferred to short-term store.
• if not attended to, the memory trace decays and is lost.
• unlimited capacity
• momentary duration (0.2 - 4 secs)

Question 3

iconic memory

sensory memory

Answer 3

• stores visual sensory info
• duration of 0.2-0.4 secs
• has an unlimited capacity

Question 4

echoic memory

Answer 4

• stores auditory sensory info
• duration of 3-4 secs
• has an unlimited capacity

Question 5

short term memory

Answer 5

a memory store that temporarily stores a limited amount of information that is consciously being attended to and actively manipulated

• duration of 15-30 seconds
• capacity of 5-9 items
• can be improved using
  
  • memory aids/ mnemonics
  • brain plasticity and connections
  • focussed and selective attention

Question 6

long term memory

Answer 6

a memory store in which a potentially unlimited amount of information is stored for a relatively permanent amount of time
* can be retrieved for future use
* info can fail to be retrieved from the long-term store if the right strategies are not used.
* permanent duration
* potentially unlimited capacity

Question 7

subcomponents of long term memory

Answer 7

• explicit (declarative) memory
  
  • type of long term memory that is formed and retrieved intentionally and with conscious effort
  • subtypes: semantic & episodic
  • e.g: remembering someone’s name
• implicit (non-declarative) memory
  
  • type of long term memory that is formed and retrieved without conscious effort
  • subtypes: procedural & classically conditioned memory
  • e.g: motor skills like brushing your teeth

Question 8

chunking

Answer 8

the grouping or packing of separate bits of information into a larger single unit or chunk of information
* e.g. numbers, words, abbreviations, acrostics.
* increases the capacity of the STM.

Question 9

components of explicit memory

Answer 9

semantic: memory of facts and knowledge about the world
* e.g: facts & knowledge learned at school, everyday facts & general knowledge, meaning of words, rules, areas of expertise
* do not include time and place

episodic: memory of personally experienced events.
* e.g: time, place, feelings.
* allows you to connect past and present.

Question 10

components of implicit memory

Answer 10

procedural: memory of motor skills and actions that have been learned previously.
* e.g: how to brush your teeth or ride a bike.
* little or no conscious effort to retrieve.
* they are difficult to put into words – you just ‘know’

classically conditioned: usually involved in fear/anxiety
* e.g: afraid to go to the dentist due to past experience which have caused anxiety, even though you may not be able to state this explicitly.
* e.g: Little Albert’s fear of the white rat is considered to be an implicit classically conditioned memory

Question 11

brain regions involved in memory

Answer 11

• cerebellum
• neocortex
• basal ganglia
• amygdala
• hippocampus

Question 12

hippocampus

Answer 12

vital processing site that encodes explicit (declarative) memories
* plays a significant role in achieving the LINKS between INTERRELATED bits of memory by integrating new incoming information with existing information to form network of memories - to form single memories
* has a crucial role in the formation and encoding of new semantic and episodic memories.
* important for spatial memory
* plays a role in the formation of emotional memories

Question 13

consolidation in the hippocampus

Answer 13

• consolidation is the neurobiological process of making a newly formed memory stable and enduring following a learning experience
  
  • a period of time (usually 30mins) is required to ensure the experience/memory becomes long-lasting when transferred to long-term memory for storage. (consolidation is required for this to be achieved)
  • when a memory is retrieved, it is open to further consolidation and has to be ‘re-stabilised’ through the process called reconsolidation

Question 14

spatial memory in the hippocampus

Answer 14

• an explicit memory for the physical location of objects in space (enables us to navigate from place to place and to learn and remember locations)
  
  • spatial memory is what enables us to navigate from place to place and to learn and remember locations.

Question 15

amygdala

Answer 15

a brain structure that is primarily involved in encoding the emotional components of memories and retrieves explicit (declarative) memories.
* best known for its role in processing and regulating emotional reactions
* particularly emotions such as fear and anger (including aggression) that may be experienced intensely and can motivate certain types of behaviour.

Question 16

neocortex

Answer 16

involved in higher order brain functions, and is the most recently evolved part of the brain. They store explicit memories.

• responsible for attention, thought, perception – all of which influence memory.
  
  • specifically it stores episodic and semantic memories are encoded and transferred from the hippocampus.
  • it is heavily linked to processing and recognition of auditory stimuli

Question 17

how is alzheimer’s diagnosed

Answer 17

• the amyloid plaques can cause brain lesions (identified through brain imaging)
• however alzheimer’s is best confirmed through post-mortem examination

Question 18

basal ganglia

Answer 18

responsible for the encoding and storage of motor and implicit memory.

• associated with habit-forming, linking, and stimulus and response learning.
• supported by dopamine in the formation of these memories.
• associated with the impaired the voluntary movements of people diagnosed with parkinson’s disease
• damage to the basal ganglia and cerebellum affects motor skill memory

Question 19

basal ganglia habituation

Answer 19

• habituation is the process of growing accustomed to a situation or stimulus
• involves a decrease in responsiveness following repeated exposure to a stimulus
• typically occurs without conscious awareness

Question 20

amygdala & the classically conditioned response

Answer 20

• implicit memory
• involved in the formation and consolidation of a wide range of other emotional memories — memories that evoke an emotional reaction
• people with damage to their amygdala are typically unable to acquire a conditioned fear response
• these individuals are likely to form conscious long term explict memories involving the details of the experience, but not an implicit memory that would enable to them to produce or express the fear response

Question 21

amygdala, adrenaline & noradrenaline

Answer 21

• we are more likely to remember events that produce strong emotional reactions than events that do not.
• it appears that the level of emotional arousal at the time of encoding influences the strength of the LTM formed of that event.
• this could be due to the increased amount of the noradrenaline in the amygdala during times of heightened emotional arousal.
• the presence of noradrenaline is believed to stimulate the amygdala to attach more emotional significance to the experience and signal the hippocampus to encode and ensure long-term storage of the relevant emotional details during the memory consolidation process.

Question 22

amygdala & flashbulb memories

Answer 22

• contributes to the formation and storage of long-term explicit memories - apparent in a specific type of episodic memory known as a flashbulb memory
• a flashbulb memory is a vivid, highly detailed and long-lasting memory of an event that is very surprising, consequential or emotionally arousing, often including details of their personal circumstances at the time of the event
  
  • e.g: when hearing about the unexpected death of an important person in their life or of a shocking incident that dominates the news. Many years later people can remember details about where they were, what they were doing, who they were with and what their emotional reaction was to the event

Question 23

cerebellum

Answer 23

responsible for storing implicit (procedural) memories.

• controls balance, co-ordination, movement, and motor skills.
• involved in activities requiring a skilled sequence of movements that require timing and are made with speed, ease and fluency
  
  • touch typing or playing the piano competently
• however also plays an important roles in everday voluntary purposeful movements
  
  • e.g pick up a cup of coffeee

Question 24

brain imaging

Answer 24

allows researchers to see structural and functional changes i.e tumours, cortical shrinkage, inactivity, lesions, and much more

• MRI, fMRI and PET technologies
• brain legions - areas of brain tissue damaged from injury or disease (shows up as dark spots on brain imaging technologies)
  
  • many forms of brain lesions that can have varying impacts i.e seizures or function loss

Question 25

alzheimer’s disease

Answer 25

a neurodegenerative disease, results in loss of neurons in the hippocampus

• studies of people with Alzheimer’s disease show that a common brain network underlies both memory and imagination, and the use of mental imagery to create and ‘see’ a ‘picture’ of an object or event at some time in the future
• characterised by a loss of episodic memory in early stages
• impacts the semantic memory as it progresses
• studies of patients with alzheimer’s disease with known hippocampal damage (lesions) have found significant impairments when they are asked to imagine the future by mentally constructing a hypothetical event or scenario.

Question 26

what causes alzheimer’s disease

Answer 26

• amyloid plaques - (protein deposits)
• neurofibrillary tangles
• cortical shrinkage
• imbalance in acetycholine (neurotransmitter)

Question 27

alzheimer’s disease symptoms

Answer 27

• memory loss, especially declarative memories
• personality change
• confusion and disorientation
• repetition

Question 28

alzheimer’s treatment

Answer 28

• there is no cure for Alzheimer’s yet
• symptoms continue to worsen over time
• there are medications that can slow the progression of the disease

Question 29

aphantasia

Answer 29

a phenomenon when individuals are unable to see visual imagery

• our ability to see a visual image is initiated by the visual cortex (not eyes) — brain imaging technologies are useful in its diagnosis
• can be born w/ aphantasia but also can be acquired after a brain injury
• those w/ aphantasia have a reduced ability to recall episodic memories
• have difficulty in imagining future events
• people who experience a lack of mental imagery can have a reduced capacity to access other mental senses (imagining sound, movement, smell, taste, and touch)

Question 30

mnemonics

Answer 30

systems, techniques, or strategies implemented to consciously improve memory
- helps you to encode, store and retrieve information by turning it into something more meaningful
- manipulates the mnemonic in short term memory
- getting them linked into the network
- makes it easier to retrieve
- exists in both written and oral cultures
- the types of mnemonics used differ significantly between these cultures

Question 31

acronyms

Answer 31

a mnemonic device in which the first of each item to be recalled is placed together to create a word

• e.g face

Question 32

acrostics

Answer 32

a mnmeonic device in which the first letter of each item to be recalled becomes the first letter of a new word, and these new words are then put together into a phrase, rhyme, poem

• e.g every good boy deserves fruit

Question 33

method of loci

Answer 33

a mnemonic device that converts items into mental images and associates them w/ specific locations to aid memory

• commonly used for speeches and public addresses
• powerful because order and sequence are built into the memory aid
• can also be further developed over time by adding more rooms
• method
  
  • start with a series of well-known locations
  • attach each word/concept to be remembered to each location
  • take a physical/mental walk to recall each of these items

Question 34

mnemonics used by Indigenous people

Answer 34

songlines/ storytelling

• an oral mnemonic — visual learning
• tied to the land
• rock-art, dancing, etc. was an indication of how learning was done at certain points and at certain times of young people’s lives
• can be built upon over time

Question 35

autobiographical events

Answer 35

to retrieve and become consciously aware of an autobiographical event in episodic memory, we engage in ‘mental time travel’ by mentally ‘reliving’ the past and placing ourselves in the context of the event

• (unique to episodic memory)
• episodic memory allows us to not only mentally travel backward in time but also in the future
  
  • episodic memory allows us to ‘relive’ the past AND use past experiences to imagine the future and plan future actions
• e.g: you know generally what your day will be like at school tomorrow based on what your day at school was like today, and all the other days you’ve spent here

Question 36

henry molaison’s case study

Answer 36

• suffered from epilepsy and constant seizures so he got his hippocampus surgically removed
  
  • although he had no more seizures, he could not form or make any new memories
  • he still remembered events and memories that occurred prior to the surgery
  • could still remember procedural memories

Question 37

similarities w/ songlines and acrostics

Answer 37

• both act as retrieval cues for other content
• both rely on meaningful strings of words
• both use verbal communication

Question 38

acrostic and songlines

Answer 38

• acrostics typically not sung - songlines typically sung but not always
• acrostics do not increase over time - songlines often increase in content over time
• acrostics typically a narrow band of content relating to one topic/subject. songlines may contain a broad volume of content from different topics/cultural significance/geography etc.